Hey there, I'm

Ansh Chandnani

I am a

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whoami

I'm currently a Senior studying Cybersecurity & Computer Science at Drexel University (graduating in June 2023). I formerly worked as a Security Engineering Intern at Google, in their Offensive Security team (Summer '22) & Detection Team (Summer '21), and at Susquehanna International Group in their Firewall Services team (Fall '20 - Winter '21).

I've been engaged in the fields of programming and robotics since the age of 9, and I enjoy learning and exploring new things. From pagers and smartphones, to Internet of Things (IoT) and servers I love trying to push the limits of technology and figure out unintended use cases. Since 2016, I've been involved in the field of Cybersecurity. Throughout high school, I taught myself various tools and technologies related to information security including but not limited to linux, web security, systems programming, and wireless exploitation.

In my free time, I love working on some cool projects and participating in various Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions, Hackathons, and hacking my way through Hack the Box. I enjoy working in teams and learning collaboratively.


Experience

Google

June '22 - September '22

Security Engineering Intern - Offensive Security

I worked as part of the Offensive Security Team performing Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) based investigations on Google's Production and Corporate Networks. To reduce time spent in reconnaissance, I created a query-driven knowledge graph of my findings. I also had the chance to collaborate on specialized penetration tests targetting critical infrastructure.

Google

June '21 - September '21

Security Engineering Intern - Detection Team

I worked as part of the Corp Task Force under the Detection Team to build a new Command-Line tool that tests Zeek scripts used in Threat Hunting across all Google services and subsidiaries. I implemented the tool as an on-demand utility with a custom Docker image eliminating the need for manual testing and reducing the testing time to 60 seconds. I used Go and the Google Cloud Platform to make the tool Operating System & Platform agnostic.



Drexel Cyberdragons

Jul '21 - Present

Vice-President

I first joined Drexel's cybersecurity club in September 2019. It's a great community of students and mentors interested in collaboratively learning about cybersecurity & ethical hacking. As Vice-President, I organize regular meetings, club activities, and create and compete in Capture-the-Flag (CTF) and Hacking competitions.

Susquehanna International Group

Sep '20 - Mar '21

Security Engineering Coop - Firewall Team

During my time at Susquehanna Internation Group (SIG), I worked as a Security Engineering Coop in the Firewall Services Team. I managed tickets to provide secure network access across global offices and exchanges for various services and workstations. After engaging in a few automation projects revolving around firewall health checks, status checks, and information gathering operations, I designed and built a new Rule Lookup tool using Python3 and custom APIs that eliminated the need for manual lookup operations, streamlined workflow, and generated clean reusable output in the form of text and excel sheets.

College of Computing & Informatics

Sep '20 - Present

Peer Mentor

As an active member of the College of Computing & Informatics (CCI), I was selected to be a Peer Mentor to help foster a better CCI community and aid students in their academic career. I took initiative and jointly organized numerous events in association with other Peer Mentors, Student Organizations, & Clubs at Drexel ranging from Club Fairs, to Hacking Competitions, and even Trivia games!

Kyrion Technologies, Microsoft Training Association

Jun '19 - Jul '19

Cybersecurity Intern

This is where I earned my Microsoft Security Fundamentals Certification. I spent a few weeks interning with Kyrion Technologies, a cybersecurity company based in Delhi, India, where I completed my training for the certification. I studied and used many different tools and trends in cybersecurity. I had the chance to interact with hackers and cybersecurity specialists from all over India.

Young Leaders' for Active Citizenship

Jun '18 - Sep '18

Counter Speech Fellowship

I was selected among hundreds of applicants for the Counter Speech Fellowship in 2018. A cohort of 24 students including myself worked in association with Instagram to organize social campaigns on topics such as Gender Equality, Mental Wellbeing, and Body Positivity. We influenced about 25,000 people between the ages of 12 through 21, based on data provided by Instagram.


Research

College of Computing & Informatics

Jun '21 - Jul '21

Undergraduate Researcher

During this time, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Denise Agosto from the College of Computing & Informatics at Drexel University in researching about Algorithmic Biases in order to promote Media Literacy. Our research spanned over a few weeks and revolved around increasing awareness about algorithmic biases, what causes them, what types of biases are commonly seen, and what we can do to mitigate the same. Our work was accepted by the American Library Association to be published soon.
Citation: Chandnani, A., & Agosto, D. E. (In press.) Finding balance—Looking toward the future: Reflection. In B. De Abreu (Ed.), …And Justice For All: A Media Literacy Imperative. Chicago: American Library Association.

STAR Scholars' Program

Jul '20 - Sep '20

Cybersecurity Research Intern

I had the honor of being selected in the top 0.03% of students as part of Drexel University's Student's Tackling Undergraduate Research (STAR) Scholars' Program. I worked under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas Heverin exploring how Ontologies & Semantic graphs, in conjunction with SPARQL queries, can be used to better secure Industrial Control Systems (ICS). Our research conclusively proved that ontologies and semantic graphs can be used to effective model the ethical hacking information relevant to Industrial Control Systems. Our research was accepted and published by the 16th International Conference on Cyber Warfare & Security.
Citation: Heverin, T., Chandnani, A., Lopex, C., & Brahmhatt, N. (2021, February). Ontology Modeling of Industrial Control System Ethical Hacking. ICCWS 2021 16th International Conference on Cyber Warfare & Security - Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BpgjEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA109&dq=ansh+chandnani&ots=tI642fLFmF&sig=odroL2smixr-Y55blej5x4oD2sg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Stanford Research Conference 2021

Apr '21

Research Scholar

I was invited to participate in the Stanford Research Conference 2021 where I presented my research on Ontology Modeling of Industrial Control System Ethical Hacking.
I learned a lot about numerous disciplines beyond my own, met some really cool people, and was awarded the 'Best Poster Presentation' in the Computational Sciences category.

Harvard National Collegiate Research Conference 2021

Jan '21

Research Scholar

I was invited to participate in the Harvard National Collegiate Research Conference 2021 where I presented my research on Ontology Modeling of Industrial Control System Ethical Hacking. This was my first ever research conference and I had a really fruitful experience meeting new people, learning about different aspects of research, and exploring numerous thought-provoking projects.

Meta Thesis

Dec '16 - Present

Blogger

In high-school, I started pondering upon the bidirectional relationship of society and technology. I was amazed at how technology changes our lifestyle and how our demands give a direction to the tech industry. Therefore, I write a blog that deals with popular socio-technical issues. It was even featured in a class at Drexel University, INFO-215: Social Aspects of Information Systems!

Education

Drexel University

Sept '19 - Present

I’m currently pursuing my undergraduate studies in Computing and Security Technology with a minor in Computer Science here in the city of Philadelphia. It’s a vividly amazing experience. Over the time that I’ve spent here, I’ve learned, researched, created amazing projects and walked a lot!

Global Young Leaders' Conference

Jun '18

I had the opportunity to attend a leadership development conference in Washington, D.C. and New York. Visiting the United States for the first time, I experienced a new culture. Over the course of the conference, we discussed and deliberated upon the Sustainable Development Goals put forth by the United Nations and explored the various aspects of cultural diplomacy. I even had a chance to visit the United Nations General Assembly!

Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition

Oct '16 - Feb '17

In the 10th grade, a team of students including myself represented our school in the largest Space Settlement Design Competition organized by Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in association with NASA. Over the course of 5 months and 3 rounds, we designed multiple space settlements based on professional Request for Proposals (RFPs) on the surface and in the orbit of the planet Mercury. We ranked as runners-up in the Asia region.

Birla High School

Jun '13 - Apr '19

I attended my high school here, in the City of Joy - Kolkata. I majored in Science with a concentration in Computer Science, attaining a 93.8% and with a 99% in Computer Science. A beautiful place to learn, the school was founded in 1940.


I making cool stuff.

SpyFi

Apr '20

My latest project. Developed a quick python script to automate the process of network monitoring that uses the `os` module to send bash commands and utilize the Aircrack-ng suite.

BabyRSA

Apr '20

Created a fun tool using python to decrypt the famous Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) encryption algorithm that uses relatively small primes. This asymmetric cryptography algorithm is used all over internet communication protocols and is a common challenge in Capture the Flag tournaments.

loveLang

Feb '20

Created a nifty Chrome extension that allows users to learn a language easily! We used javascript, jQuery, and mongoDB to create our one-of-a-kind plugin. We programmed our plugin to interact with the Google Translate API to provide you with the most up to date, reliable translations out there. Dragonhacks 2020 - Best Community Hack

OracleSQLizer

Feb '20

To make life easier in my database class, I quickly whipped up a python script to create SQL INSERT statements after reading a given flat-file (.csv). I used RegEx to tailor the output to different datatypes according to the Oracle standards.

OfflineCaesar

Feb '20

During a cybersecurity Capture the Flag competition, I created my own little tool in python to brute-force decode Caesar ciphers. I've found this extremely useful in CTF Competitions, it saves a lot of time as comapared to other online tools. :)

MTA Security Projects

Jul '19

During my time at Kyrion Technologies and Microsoft Training Association, I had the chance to explore various popular tools and exploits in the realm of penetration testing. I worked with concepts of Network Management, Vulnerability Analysis, & based Penetration Testing. I learned how to develop exploits used for Man In The Middle (MITM), Cross Site Scripting (XSS, Dictionary Based, and Phishing Attacks. I also had the chance to present a cost-based research analysis on popular Hash functions used on industrial scales.

Me.

Apart from swimming, debating, and hacking, I love travelling and exploring new cultures. In the past, I've travelled to Dubai, India, the United States, and Bhutan for fun, work, and studies. Here at Drexel I am the proud recipient of the Dean's Fellowship merit based scholarship. I really enjoy the community and culture here, I've learned and enjoyed greatly. Recently I had the chance to co-author a research paper on Using Ontologies to secure Industrial Control Systems which is currently under review for the 16th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

There’s so much stuff I love apart from hacking vulnerable systems and coding. I especially enjoy swimming. I have been swimming since the age of 4 and participated in competitive swimming between 2011 and 2017, winning about 16 accolades from the Indian Life Saving Society. In high school, I took part in many debates and Model UN Conferences and even had the honor of Chairing the Birla High School Model UN in 2018.